Germinating the Seed Within Us

One early spring, as I tilled my garden, I added several bags of nutrients to the soil. A busy schedule and a lot of rain kept me from doing any planting for a few weeks. In that time, the garden was once again taken over by weeds. After weeding, I decided to use a product that was supposed to slow down the growth of weeds in the future. On the package were these words “This product does not kill weeds; it prevents them from germinating.”

CONSIDER that we all have within us the seed of good & evil. If we allow the seeds of evil to germinate, our lives will become overgrown with weeds. How do we keep these seeds from germinating? As the computer people used to say: GIGO- Garbage In, Garbage Out. The things we see, the conversations we are a part of, the things we do, these are all ways that seeds germinate.

CONSIDER the words of Paul, “Set your minds on things above, not on things below” (Colossians 3:1-2), and “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).

CONSIDER also another warning from the package, “Do not spread this product where seeds are sown.” Paul says that the seed God has sown in us will produce the Fruit of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22). By letting the seed that God planted in us germinate, we will become the children of God we are created to be.

“And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1:9-10)